Oakville boy jumps to the rescue as stormwater pond dredged

Accommodation must be made for wildlife

Oakville boy jumps to the rescue as stormwater pond dredged

Oakville’s Lucas Azevedo, 13, contacted local authorities upon becoming concerned about the fate of wildlife during the dredging of a storm management pond in the vicinity of Sixth Line and Glenashton Road last week. Azevedo has become a fan of the pond this summer after visiting and discovering it teeming with activity as a wide variety of wildlife calls the pond home.

A 13-year-old Oakville boy became concerned about local wildlife when a developer began dredging a storm management pond in the vicinity of Sixth Line and Glenashton Road last week.

Lucas Azevedo said he had only recently come to appreciate the pond, visiting it nearly every day for the last month with his friends.

Despite being artificial, the pond is home to more than 100 different fish as well as a local beaver, great blue herons and Canada geese, said the youth.

“When I go with my friends and my family, I watch the wildlife just for entertainment,” said Azevedo.

“I’ve really come to care about the wildlife and I was really hurt when I found out they were draining the pond.”

Last Friday, Azevedo said construction crews had drained the pond to such an extent that some fish were swimming half exposed out of the water.

He was so worried about what he was seeing he contacted not only the Oakville Beaver, but also his Ward 5 councillor and Oakville’s mayor.

Philip Kelly of Oakville’s Development and Environmental Engineering Department said the Metrontario is cleaning accumulated sediment off the bottom of the storm management pond so it can continue to be used.

The developer is required to carry out this project before the Town takes over management of the developing area.

To remove the sediment with construction equipment, Kelly said, the developer first has to reduce the water level of the pond, but must leave enough water to accommodate the fish.

“The plan here is for them to always maintain a wet area where the fish can survive,” said Kelly.

“So, there is a consideration given to the fish. There is actually a consideration given to all wildlife. You could clean out the pond in April, May, or June, but that is not the best time because robins, skunks, ducks are having their young. Everybody is kind of small and not too mobile. By the time you get to July, August, September and October, everyone has had their babies and most babies are mobile and can move. So, we try to encourage developers to do this during the July-October timeframe because that’s better.”

Kelly said Metrontario does have a biologist on its team to ensure the project is executed in as environmentally sound a manner as possible.

As the pond is artificial and not connected to any other waterways, Kelly said, the fish in the pond are not native species.

“Typically, most of the fish in storm water ponds are from people’s aquariums,” he said.

“People decide they don’t want to look after a fish anymore and they relocate them to the pond. So, we are not talking salmon or trout. We’re talking about koi, like you’ll see in the Toronto Zoo. More invasive species than anything else.”

The work at the pond is expected to last two to three weeks, depending on rainfall. Work must stop when new water enters the pond so it also can be pumped out.

Azevedo said recent rain has improved the situation of the fish in the pond, which are currently contained to a section that still has water.

“I’m happy about that,” he said.

When the project is complete, Kelly expects a few rainfalls will return the water level of the pond to normal.

Cleaning of the storm management ponds is a fairly regular occurrence in Oakville with the Town carrying out about one such project per year.

A different developer cleaned a storm management pond in the Dundas Street and Neyagawa Boulevard area only a few weeks ago.